James Meredith

James Meredith
James Meredith in 1962
Born	James Howard Meredith (1933-06-25) June 25, 1933 Kosciusko, Mississippi
Education	University of Mississippi; Columbia Law School, LL.B.
Known for	becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi

James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American Civil Rights Movement figure, writer, political adviser and Air Force veteran. In 1962, he became the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi,^[1] after the intervention of the federal government, an event that was a flashpoint in the African American Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi.^[2] His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans.^[2]

In 1966 Meredith planned a solo 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi; he wanted to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration. He did not want major civil rights organizations involved. The second day, he was shot by a white gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. While he was recovering, more people became involved as marchers. When Meredith and other leaders entered Jackson on June 26, marchers were an estimated 15,000 strong, in what was the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. During the course of it, more than 4,000 African Americans had registered to vote, and the march was a catalyst to continued community organizing and additional registration.

In 2002 and again in 2012, the University of Mississippi led year-long series of events to celebrate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of Meredith's integration of the institution. He was among numerous speakers invited to the campus, where a statue of him commemorates his role. The Lyceum-The Circle Historic District at the center of the campus has been designated as a National Historic Landmark for these events.

Early life and education

Meredith was born in 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the son of Roxie (Smith) and Moses Meredith.^[3] He is of African-American, British Canadian, Scots and Choctaw heritage. His family nickname was "J-Boy".^[4] European traders intermarried with some Choctaw during the colonial period. In the 1830s, thousands of Choctaw had chosen to stay in Mississippi and become United States citizens when most of the tribe left their traditional homeland for Indian Territory during the federally imposed removal. There were unions with European Americans and African Americans (some of whom were enslaved), adding to the multi-racial population in the developing territory.

After attending local schools (which were segregated as "white" and "colored" under the state's Jim Crow laws) and graduating from high school, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.

For two years, Meredith attended Jackson State University, where he achieved good grades.

Challenge to University of Mississippi

In 1961, inspired the day before by President John F. Kennedy, he started to apply to the University of Mississippi, intending to insist on his civil rights to attend the state-funded university.^[5] It still accepted only white students under the state's culture of racial segregation, even after the US Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that segregation was unconstitutional in public schools, which are supported by all the taxpayers.

Meredith wrote in his application that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself.

He said,

"Nobody handpicked me...I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility...^[6] I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi."

He was denied twice.^[7] During this time, he was advised by Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader who was head of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

On May 31, 1961, Meredith, with backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record. The case went through many hearings, after which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school, and an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court supported the appeals court.^[8]

On September 13, 1962, the District Court entered an injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith.^[9] Though Meredith was clearly legally entitled to register, the Democratic Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor". The state legislature quickly passed a law that denied admission to any person “who has a crime of moral turpitude against him” or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned. The law was directed at Meredith, who was then accused and convicted of “false voter registration” in Jackson County.^[5]

On September 20, the federal government gained an enjoinment against enforcement of this Act, and of two state court decrees barring Meredith's registration.^[9] But that day, Meredith was rebuffed again by Governor Barnett in his efforts to gain admission, though university officials were prepared to admit him.^[9] On September 28, the Court of Appeals, en banc and after a hearing, found the Governor in civil contempt and ordered that he be arrested and pay a fine of $10,000 for each day that he kept up the refusal, unless he complied by October 2.^[9] On September 29, Lieutenant Governor Johnson was found in contempt by a panel of the court, and a similar order was entered against him, with a fine of $5,000 a day.^[9]

US Army trucks loaded with steel-helmeted US Marshals roll across the University of Mississippi campus on October 3, 1962.

The US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of phone calls with Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1.^[10][11][12] Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university, but secretly bargained with Kennedy on a plan which would allow him to save face. Barnett committed to maintain civil order. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered in 500 U.S. Marshals to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration. On September 29, President Kennedy issued a proclamation commanding all persons engaged in the obstruction of the laws and the orders of the courts to "cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith", citing his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 332, § 333, and § 334 to use the militia or the armed forces to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.^[13][14][9]

Despite the administration's reluctance to use federal troops, that evening, after State Senator George Yarbrough withdrew the State Highway Police, a riot broke out, and the nationalized Mississippi National Guard and federal troops were called in. In the violent clashes, two men were killed by gunshot wounds, cars were burned, federal marshals were pelted with rocks, bricks and small arms fire, and university property was damaged.

The next day, on October 1, 1962, after troops took control, Meredith became the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi.^[15]

Meredith's entry is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. He persisted through harassment and extreme isolation to graduate on August 18, 1963, with a degree in political science.^[16]

Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus, but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts chronicled in Nadine Cohodas's book, The Band Played Dixie (1997), students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table.

In 2014, vandals linked to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity vandalized Meredith's honorary University of Mississippi campus statue by putting a noose around its neck and draping it with a former Georgia state flag, controversial because it had incorporated the Confederate flag. In response, Meredith said "that just clearly shows that we’re not training our children like the Bible says. They don’t know right and wrong, good and bad and how to apply it to life."^[1]

Education and activism

Meredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at Columbia University and earned an LL.B (law degree) in 1968.

In 1966 Meredith organized and led a solo, personal March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, beginning on June 6, 1966. Inviting only black men to join him, he wanted to highlight continuing oppression in the Mississippi Delta, as well as to encourage blacks to register and vote following passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, with enforcement of rights. The governor Paul Johnson promised to allow the march and provide State Highway Police protection. Meredith wanted blacks in Mississippi to overcome fear of violence. Despite police, on the second day, Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell, a white man whose motives were never determined as he pleaded guilty at trial. Meredith was quickly taken to a hospital.^[17][18] Leaders of major organizations rallied at the news and vowed to complete the march in Meredith's name. They struggled to reconcile differing goals, attracting marchers from local towns and across the country by the end.

Meredith recovered from his wounds and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson on June 26, where 15,000 marchers entered the city in what had become the largest civil rights march in state history. During the march, more than 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote. Continued community organizing was catalyzed by these events, and African Americans began to enter the political system again.^[19] Black voters in Mississippi have established a high rate of voter registration and voting participation.

Political career

In 1967 while living and studying in New York, Meredith decided to run as a Republican against the incumbent Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., a multi-term Democrat, in a special election for the Congressional seat in Harlem, but withdrew. Powell was re-elected.^[20] Meredith said, "The Republican Party [of New York] made me an offer: full support in every way, everything." He had full access to top New York Republicans.^[21]

After returning to Mississippi to live, in 1972 Meredith ran for the US Senate against the Democratic senator James Eastland, who had been the incumbent for 29 years because of the lack of competitive party politics. During most of that time, African Americans in the state had been disfranchised and the Republican Party had been crippled, following provisions of a constitution new in 1890 that made voter registration extremely difficult.^[22] Meredith conceded that he had little chance of winning unless Governor George Wallace of Alabama entered the presidential race and split the white vote.^[20]

An active Republican, Meredith served from 1989 to 1991 as a domestic adviser on the staff of United States Senator Jesse Helms. Faced with criticism from the civil rights community for working for the former avowed segregationist, Meredith said that he had applied to every member of the Senate and House offering his services, and only Helms' office responded. He also wanted a chance to do research at the Library of Congress.^[23]

Statue of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi

In 2002, officials at the University of Mississippi celebrated the 40th anniversary of Meredith's historic admission and integration of the institution with a year-long series of events. Of the celebration, Meredith said,

"It was an embarrassment for me to be there, and for somebody to celebrate it, oh my God. I want to go down in history, and have a bunch of things named after me, but believe me that ain't it."^[23]

He said he had achieved his main goal at the time by getting the federal government to enforce his rights as a citizen. He saw his actions as "an assault on white supremacy."^[23] In 2003, he was far more proud that his son Joseph Meredith graduated as the top doctoral student at the university's graduate business school.^[23]

During the anniversary year, Meredith, 69, was the special guest speaker for a seminar at Mississippi State University. Among other topics, Meredith spoke of his experiences at Ole Miss. During a question-and-answer session, a young white male asked Meredith if he had taken part in a formal rush program. Meredith replied, "Doesn't that have something to do with being in a fraternity?" The young man replied "Yes," and Meredith did not respond further. It was enough for the audience to remember that Meredith, a 29-year-old veteran, had to be accompanied at the time by armed military personnel to secure his safety.

In 2012, Meredith received the Harvard Graduate School of Education 'Medal for Education Impact' and was the school's convocation speaker. According to Meredith, the award was the first he has accepted in 50 years.^[24] That year, the University of Mississippi planned another year of programs celebrating 50 years of integration, featuring a range of speakers, artists, lectures and events.

Political viewpoint

A highly independent man, Meredith has identified as an individual American citizen who demanded and received the constitutional rights held by any American, not as a participant in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. There have been tensions between him and leaders of major organizations of the movement. When interviewed in 2002, the 40th anniversary of his enrollment at University of Mississippi, Meredith said, "Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind."^[23][25]

In a 2002 interview with CNN, Meredith said, "I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government—the Kennedy administration at that time—into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen."^[26]

Books

• 1966, his memoir, Three Years in Mississippi, was published by the Indiana University Press.
• He has self-published several books on politics and society.

Marriage and family

James Meredith in 2007

On March 14, 1956, two and a half months after they met, Meredith married Mary June Wiggins.^[27] She later worked as a high school English teacher.^[28][29] They had three sons, James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith. Mary June Meredith died of heart failure in December 1979.

In 1982 Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana.^[30][31] They had two children: Kemp Naylor and Jessica Howard Meredith.^[32] The couple live in Jackson, Mississippi.^[33]

See also

• List of civil rights leaders

References

Works

• Branch, Taylor (1988). Parting the waters : America in the King years, 1954-63. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-68742-7. 
• Meredith, James (1966). Three Years in Mississippi. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.  This book is readily available in the used book market and libraries.
• Meredith, James (1995). Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books. Jackson, MS: Meredith Publishing. 

Further reading

• Bryant, Nick (Autumn 2006). "Black Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (53): 60–71. 
• Doyle, William (2001). An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49969-8. 
• Goudsouzian, Aram (2014). Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
• Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur (2002) [1978]. Robert Kennedy and His Times. New York: First Mariner Books. ISBN 0-618-21928-5.  This book is readily available.
• Stanton, Mary (2003). Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-505-4. 
• Hendrickson, Paul (2003). Sons of Mississippi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40461-9.  Contains revealing interviews with Meredith conducted by the author.
• Eagles, Charles W. (2009). The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-3273-1. 
• Lyon, Harold C (1974). It's Me & I'm Here! New York: Delacorte
• McGee, Meredith Coleman. James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him. ABC-CLIO, 2013.

External links

• University of Mississippi biography (Archive)
• James Meredith Collection (MUM00293), University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections.]
• James Meredith Small Manuscripts (MUM00594), University of Mississippi.]
• "Mississippi and Meredith remember", 30 September 2002, CNN
• Associated Press: "Meredith ready to move on"
• "The Integration of the University of Mississippi", U.S. Marshals Service
• "On this day in History: 1 October 1962", BBC
• Facsimiles of letters to the Justice Department and Thurgood Marshall, Kennedy Library
• James Meredith's Letter to the Justice Department February 7, 1961, 02/07/1961 , National Archives
• James Meredith's oral history video excerpts, The National Visionary Leadership Project
• James Meredith's website